Uber, Lyft, And Their Day Of Reckoning

In Uber, Lyft say making drivers employees would ‘pose a risk to our businesses’, Margot Roosevelt reports on the campaign that Uber and Lyft have joined to counter pending legislation that would force ride-hailing companies to treat drivers as employees, not as independent contractors:

The ride-hailing giants have lobbied behind the scenes for months, arguing that their drivers should retain “independent contractor” status — even as drivers in California and across the country have mounted protests over low pay and a lack of labor protections and filed thousands of lawsuits over their treatment.

“A change to the employment classification of ride-share drivers would pose a risk to our businesses,” the companies declared in an opinion article published in the San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday under the bylines of Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi, Lyft chief executive Logan Green and Lyft president John Zimmer.

The companies’ stock prices have dropped since they went public this spring, as investors question whether they can ever make a profit.